The present invention relates, in general, to shredder hammers and, more particularly, to a new and useful hammer which provides for the changing of pin holes without the removal of the hammer pins.
Shredders are used in a variety of different industrial applications. Typically, a shredder includes an enclosed rotor and hammers that are attached to the rotor by hammer pins. The rotor is spun at a high rate of speed by either an electric motor or diesel engine drive. Material is fed into the enclosed shredder and is impacted by the heavy high speed hammers thereby reducing the particle size of the feed material. Through continued use of the shredder equipment, the hammers will wear out and require either a change of hammer pin holes or a replacement of the hammers. In the common method used to change hammer pin holes or to replace a hammer, it is necessary to remove the hammer pins. However, the removal of hammer pins, for the replacement of hammer pin holes or the hammer itself, is costly and inefficient and has led to the development of replaceable tip hammers as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,829,032.
Two common types of hammers are used in shredders. These are hammers having two sides, commonly known as a bell type hammer, and hammers having four sides, commonly known as a bow-tie type hammer. Replaceable tip hammers are used in conjunction with the two-sided bell type hammers. However the bow-tie hammer, with its four useable sides, has become the preferred type hammer in the solid waste processing field, even though no method or device is known that allows for the changing or replacing of hammer pin holes without removal of the hammer pins.